Courts set up to help women avoid sexual exploitation

Thursday

Sep 26, 2013 at 12:01 AMSep 26, 2013 at 11:00 AM

NEW YORK - New York state is creating a statewide system of specialized criminal courts to handle prostitution cases and provide services to help wrest human- and sex-trafficking victims from the cycle of exploitation and arrest, the state's chief judge said yesterday.

NEW YORK —New York state is creating a statewide system of specialized criminal courts to handle prostitution cases and provide services to help wrest human- and sex-trafficking victims from the cycle of exploitation and arrest, the state’s chief judge said yesterday.

The initiative is thought to be the first of its kind in the nation.

Eleven new courts across the state, modeled on three narrower pilot projects in New York City and Nassau County, will bring together specially trained prosecutors, judges and defense lawyers, along with social workers and an array of other services, the chief judge, Jonathan Lippman, said in a speech to the Citizens Crime Commission.

The new courts, one in each of New York City’s five boroughs and six others situated from Long Island to Buffalo, will all be functioning by the end of October, Lippman said. They will handle 95 percent of the thousands of cases each year in which people are charged with prostitution and human-trafficking offenses.